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Fbi Reportedly Kept Eye On Mayor Young

DETROIT, MICHIGAN — Former Mayor Coleman Young, who ran the city for an unprecedented 20 years, was under FBI surveillance for roughly four decades, The Detroit News reported Sunday.

Records obtained under the federal Freedom of Information Act show the surveillance began in the 1940s, when federal agents who suspected the well-known labor activist had communist ties followed him to union organizing meetings, the newspaper said.

Federal agents continued keeping tabs on Young through the 1980s, when bugs were planted in his office in the official mayoral residence.

Young, Detroit's longest-serving mayor and its first black mayor, took office in 1974 and retired in 1994 after five terms. He died in November 1997 at the age of 79.

Young's administration underwent six federal investigations but he never was charged with a crime.

In all, the Detroit office of the FBI compiled 1,357 pages on Young, including business records, transcripts of conversations caught on electronic surveillance, memos from the U.S. Attorney's Office, newspaper clippings and summaries of interviews.

The agency released 925 pages to the Detroit News.

In 1995, Young had complained to the newspaper about what he called "a witch-hunt."

"Anyone could see the consistency and persistency in the FBI's interest and investigation of my activities," he said.